Generator Rex: EVO's End (Cancelled)
by DraftsmanFive
Summary: UPDATE: This series is being cancelled in favor of "Gen Rex:Machina". This story will remain here for the sake of reflection, but is no longer being updated and has no ties to GRM. Apologies for restarting the story a second time.
1. A Beautiful New Day Part I

Thousands of feet in the air, Rex found himself within the confines of a Providence standard Jump Jet flying over a city that was seaming with both activity and a newfound sort of peace. It had only been a few months since the miraculous "Cure Event" had taken place, but humanity was already making a grand effort to recover from the devastating epidemic that had plagued society over the previous six years.

And even though the existence of EVO kind, sans Rex, was made nonexistent as far as Providence was aware, the organization still maintained its relevancy in a post EVO infected world by shifting away from its military stance and transitioning into a more research and humanitarian focused organization. From agents and soldiers to scientists and volunteers, Providence became known for providing assistance to areas that were heavily impacted during the Event and for continuing the research on the now dormant Nanites that resided within the bodies of every living organism.

Understandably, this left Doctor Holiday with a significant amount of work to do as she was already Providence's head scientist before she was assigned to oversee the operations of an entire division the size of an organization. But despite the commendations and stature of what seemed to be a grand promotion, she would frequently be relocated around the world wherever world leaders requested her to be—without any say in the matter, or time to argue otherwise. Fortunately she held no qualms over dutifully serving the many recovering countries of the world, but it still pained her that she had little opportunity to check on who she still considered to be her most important patient: Rex.

She took up a mothering role in his life not long after she first met him years ago, and took great pride in her position as she was one of the few people in Providence—no, the entire world that actually treated him as another human being rather than some sort of tool or 'living weapon'. Even thinking about referring to him as such brought her a great feeling of disgust. And though it often went unspoken, Rex truly did appreciate what Holiday had become to him; so much so that after weeks of not having seen her, he hacked into Providence's database in order find her location and 'commandeered' an available Jump Jet to go and visit her, as a Jump Jet was still the only mode of transportation that was faster than he was with his machines.

He chose to locate himself close to the rear, sitting on the floor with his back firmly planted against the exit hatch while he bounced a cheaply made rubber ball against the wall opposite to him. But for what his accommodations lacked in both leisure and safety was more than made up for by an unparalleled freedom that could not have been provided if he were situated anywhere else, as even though it was the floor that was acting as his seat, he was able to travel without any sort of restraints save for his own self-discipline, which was more than enough for him.

Of course there was also the fact that he wasn't back there alone, as accompanying him within that section of the Jump Jet was an animal—a simian more specifically—who was busy polishing two crimson-coated handguns in a very tender manner. But more interesting than his ability to perform maintenance was the presence of his one remaining eye, which was currently tracking the ball with a keen sense of curiosity as it bounced around.

"You seem a bit antsy there, Chief. Maybe we ought to've checked you for ticks before we left." Sneered the mono-eyed Chimpanzee with the unusual affinity to speak—using words that were just as often profane as they were credulously provocative. In turn, the Providence agent ceased the bouncing and held the ball in his hand after it returned to him once more, tossing a menacing glance towards his simian sidekick with the ball aimed that direction.

The Chimp ducked down to the floor and clutched onto his fez in anticipation of the ball flying his direction. But when the projectile never reached him, he released the grip on his hat and looked back at his partner questioningly, who let out a light chuckle as he continued to toss the ball elsewhere.

"What? Ya mean you ain't gonna pelt me with that thing? I know you can aim that at me without any difficulty." He said while gesturing to his good eye with one of his fingers.

"It isn't past me, but it's more fun messing with you, Bobo. And besides, it would take too much effort to get the ball back from here." Rex taunted while spinning the ball using a finger.

"But ain't you got like five machines that can do that for ya?"

"I WOULD THINK NOT." A voice from the intercom system interjected with a deafening blare, prompting for the two stowaways to hastily cover their ears and slouch in discomfort.

"Hey Kenwyn, ya mind cranking down the audio!? Don't wanna be half blind AND deaf!" Bobo screeched. Kenwyn promptly lowered the audio levels, and after a second of loud static the noise was reduced to more appropriate levels.

"Sorry about that, guys." she apologized, "Half of our equipment is falling apart at the seams and telling what works and what doesn't gets harder by the day."

"Um, have you forgotten that I can talk to machines and figure any issues that they have in less than a second?" Rex questioned as he placed his hand against the Jet's wall.

"You better not be messing with the Jet back there, hero." Kenwyn commanded, causing Rex to reel back his hand before his Nanites had the chance to travel through the vehicle. "Not sure if you need to be reminded this, but the only reason I'm going behind Providence's back is because we all want to see Doctor Holiday and you don't know how to fly a Jump Jet, which I would like to pilot without any disturbances."

"Who knows, maybe it's the kid's amnesia is acting up again." Bobo taunted, skewing the intentions of Kenwyn's comment.

"Not how my amnesia works. Retrograde, not anterograde, learn your differences." Rex defensively retorted. "And okay, I get that I have a reputation for breaking things, but do you guys really not trust me enough to use my Nanites on the Jet?"

"Well, we don't." Another feminine voice interrupted.

"Thanks for the vote of confidence, Babe." Rex uttered sarcastically.

"But for real, the second your Nanites start running through the Jet Providence will notice an interference and begin tracking us down." She explained. "Personally, I'd like to see them try and catch us. It'd make for a fun chase, don't you guys think?" Rex couldn't help but smirk at the thought of being chased down by Providence, especially considering he had several accomplices this time around to help him take the blame should he be caught.

"Don't give them any ideas, Circe!" Kenwyn pleaded as she tried to cut off the communication channel to no avail.

"It's too late for that, Kenny. We already stole two of these Jump Jets and I want to see how many offenses we can rack up before Providence finally decides to kick us out." The second pilot teased from the second Jet trailing very closely behind. Traveling with him were six other passengers comprising of the other two members of the Hong Kong gang, Beverly, Noah, Annie, and Claire, with the latter half of the group having chosen to ride in Skwydd's Jet rather than Kenwyn's simply out of fear of flying on the same jet as Rex after previous experiences.

"While I'd love to see them kick _you_ out, Walter, I wouldn't want to do anything at the cost of me losing my position as well. And please, don't call me 'Kenny'." She sighed knowing well that she'd be ignored, which Tuck made a point of mentioning when he took the mic.

"Sorry Kenwyn, but I think we'll see Skwydd turn into some sort of tentacle monster before calling you by your actual name."

"I personally think it's kind of cute," Cricket chirped. "It's sort of like a pet name between the two of you."

"Cute." Kenwyn groaned while Skwydd shifted awkwardly at the mention. "Hey Beverly, you mind checking how close we are to your sister?" Kenwyn queried.

"Huh?" She groggily replied as she jerked her head up. "Oh yeah, yeah I can do that for you, just give me a second to find…that…"

"You feeling alright, Beverly? You sound a bit exhausted, aren't you excited to see your sister?" Rex politely questioned.

"Of course I want to see my sister, I'm just a bit tired is all. Recently I've been spending so much time in the lab assisting your brother that I might've missed a night's sleep. Or two. Or five." She droned on while slumping further down into her seat, which for all intents and purposes _should not_ have been at the front of the Jet as the co-pilot.

"Someone should really beat some sense into you, Caesar." Rex muttered beneath his breath with his nose pinched in his hand. "Listen, if working for my brother is the only thing keeping your parents from pulling you out of Providence, why not just work with your sister?"

"Because Rebecca would prefer it if I just didn't work for Providence at all; says that it's bad enough with all the work she's doing and that the last thing she'd want is for me to dragged all over the place, too. But at this point, I'm really starting to question if that's any worse than installing Nanite detection protocols onto Jump Jets in the middle of the night."

"Of course it was Caesar's idea. Maybe I'm the one who needs to beat him." Rex thought to himself, wondering why it was that his brother's activities always seemed to be to his own disbenefit. "Don't lose any sleep over it," he absentmindedly stated, "Just go take a nap or something so that Doc isn't too suspicious when we arrive."

"Which should be in about—" Beverly froze as her eyes darted all over the monitor before her. "Hold on, something's wrong with the display."

"Wrong how?" Tuck questioned.

"I-It's almost like something's interfering with it."

"Hey, don't worry about it too much, Beverly. Faulty equipment, remember?" Kenwyn tried reconciling.

"No, this is definitely different. It being faulty is one thing, but the numbers are misaligned, and scrambling themselves in a certain pattern that definitely indicates some sort of intent." It was often forgotten that Beverly too came from a family of geniuses. And even though her intellect wasn't of the same caliber as her sister or anyone on the Nanite development team such as the likes of Caesar, her observation skills were far superior to that of a regular person and enough to keep her sane when acting as Caesar's dedicated lab assistant. "Whenever Caesar reprogrammed the ships it acted exactly like this, except the systems didn't suddenly start acting unresponsive!"

Circe checked her monitor within the first Jet, and sure enough their equipment was reacting in the exact same fashion. And without any warning, the sirens suddenly began blaring and the warning lights were flashing with an unnerving red glow.

"That's not good. Rex, you think you can figure out what's causing everything to go on the fritz?" Circe coolly inquired. Rex deliberated on all of the possibilities before finally deciding to take action.

"Can't tell, so I guess we're just gonna have to explain this all to Providence once they catch up." He declared as he placed his hand back on the Jet and commanded for the Nanites to travel through the system. Glowing blue strains extended from his fingertips and traveled all throughout the vehicle, relaying all of the information to Rex as it surged back to its body. "Something is definitely interfering with the system. Everything is working, but it's like all of the systems have a 'cold', particularly the anti-defense system for some reason…"

Beverly considered all of the possible explanations to the phenomena, and after the logic of her conclusion surpassed what she wanted to believe was mere paranoia, her eyes widened and she slammed her palm against the intercom system.

"Kenwyn, we have to change our route RIGHT NOW! We're being ATTA—" But before she could complete her statement, the first Jet violently erupted in half after a laser pierced the hull of the ship, followed by a fiery explosion immediately after.

* * *

AUTHOR'S NOTE:

I'm writing again, and this time with a coherent story in mind so that I won't have to take a several month hiatus in order to continue the story!  
So yeah, it was a mixture of a writing block and a creative pitfall that prevented me from getting past the third chapter, which is ultimately why I chose to abandon the previous series rather than revise it. This story began pretty similarly as you can already tell, but it still works better for me to establish the rest of the story.

That being said I plan on regularly updating the story bi-weekly at the minimum, but I would recommend sending me reviews and what not so that I won't forget to update the chapters; but by no means do I plan on abandoning the series and those of us that still remain in this fanbase, so sorry for the delay, and I hope you enjoy the remainder of the chapters!

P.S: Most of this was written in a 5 hour binge while I was experiencing a major headache. If anything doesn't make sense, please let me know and I'll correct it.


	2. A Beautiful New Day Part II

It seemed as if the blast had reverberated in the air before the detonation itself had even occurred, the violent shock waves echoing in the atmosphere and within the chambers of any enclosed space within the nearby vicinity. But for some reason unbeknownst to the Providence Agents, the vehicle's framework had actually emitted a sensational hum that kept growing with intensity prior to the explosion's occurrence.

The surviving Jet, shaken up by the violent eruption, suddenly fell into a steep decline that interrupted the remaining members from whatever task they were previously doing, instead forcing them to focus on the terrible sensation that wracked both their bodies and their minds. Noah, Annie, and Claire shared the collective fear that they found themselves in yet another crashing vehicle—which, ironically enough, was the reason they chose not to ride alongside Rex in the first place after previous instances in which their rides had either fallen into the sea or crash landed into the ground. _Never mind the fact that Annie had directly been responsible for both incidents…_

However, it didn't take the entire group long to come to the realization that it was instead their companions who had suffered such a grim fate, with the bright light they were passing as the only indicator necessary to know that disaster had struck. But just as the smoke had begun to dissipate from the explosion, a figure emerged in addition to all of the rubble flying outwards in its wake with several others clinging onto to it. The figure, of course, was none other than Rex who flew from out the ashes of the group's former vessel with everyone else safely secured within his embrace.

And though he wasn't provided with much time to react to the situation, Beverly's warning was more than enough indication for him to preemptively summon his machines. In less than a second's worth of time he constructed a syncretized build that was comprised of both his «Block Party» and «Blast Caster», with the whip having retrieved the two passengers from the front while the gauntlet in his dominant hand created an energized forcefield that managed to protect the group in its entirety—despite inexplicably being disintegrated by the explosion.

However, the task of protecting his allies did not end there for Rex who recalled his «Block Party» in exchange for a second whip, which was an unprecedented move on his part but one he would use to an equal degree of effectiveness nonetheless. He swung the secondary tendril towards the still intact Jet, the whip careening through air until the very tip had latched on to the rung at the back the vehicle. The group was suspended in midair, trailing dozens of meters behind the vehicle while the bitter wind ferociously whipped at their bodies at full speed.

"Outta the pond and into th' frying pan! And here I was thinking that we'd be able to catch a dang break in a world without EVOs!" Bobo growled out while clinging on to his fez and Rex for dear life. "You don't think that whoever's behind this is another one of those paranoid nutcases dead set on hunting down EVOS, do ya chief?" He shouted over the wind.

Kenwyn began to squirm around in her place as she interjected in the conversation. "Seeing as how we haven't gone a two weeks without some mad scientist or guerrilla trying to hunt the two of you down, that wouldn't come as much of a surprise!"

Rex uttered a quick tsk before turning his eyes up to his partners. "Maybe, but these guys are either real brave or real stupid to hunt me down with Providence by my side, even if they are misguided enough to think that Bobo is still an EVO." He yelled back. "What do you say you we go down there and ask them what they're after?" Bobo took on a sinister grin in response, just as Rex had anticipated.

"Okay, but first we've got to get inside the Jet and let the other know we're alright!" Kenwyn stated as they looked back towards the Jet.

Rex nodded in response. "But right now I'm kind of limited in what I can do without dropping you guys." Understanding that Rex was unable to provide any further assistance, Kenwyn continued to thrash around her body until she was finally able to free one of her arms from the bind that kept them together, and then brought her hand to the communicator nested in her ear.

"Skwydd, Beverly, can you two read me? We need you guys to open the gate, and fast!"

Skwydd's eyes widened in response as he heard his commander's voice, words unable to express his gratitude as he quickly processed that she and the rest of the group were still alive. "O-Oh, right! We hear you loud and clear, Kenwyn!" He valiantly responded. "Beverly, go get that gate gets open while I try to get us to a safe position!" Skwydd then commanded as he stabilized the Jet and began navigating further from the ground.

Upon hearing the voice of both her commander and her co-pilot, Beverly finally broke free from the shock that was brought about by the scene and diverted all of her attention to helping Rex and the others steer away from any more danger. She scanned through the console before her until she finally found the button that opened the back hatch. The exit slowly forced open, but then began to stutter before halting less than halfway through.

"The hatch isn't opening!" Cricket pointed out.

"Yes, I can see that! Let me think!" Beverly worryingly responded. "These Jump Jets aren't fitted with any sort of hydraulics systems, and I doubt it's any other type of mechanical error since the gate didn't show any problems when we first took off." She thought aloud, muttering to herself at a pace that not even Caesar could keep up with whenever he rambled during his scientific pursuits.

"So it must be a software error. But whenever Caesar and I did a second pass on this fleet, the software update he programmed ended up resolving all technical errors bar anything involving the communication systems, so what's the big deal?" She griped when suddenly, the solution dawned upon her. "That's how they've been doing it, the communication channel!" She frantically spoke through the communication line. "Guys, as much as I hate leaving you outside in the dark, we're going to have to temporarily kill the communication frequency in order bypass whatever is interfering with this Jet's systems!"

Beverly didn't receive the clearest of responses provided the interference of the rushing winds in conjunction with the broken transmission, but she pieced together "We trust you" and "Do what you have to" somewhere within the mix. Beverley glanced all over the ship seeking for the terminal that the communications system was linked up to, and traced the wiring that extended from the Jet's console all the way back to the Jet's main deck.

The terminal was hidden behind a panel that seemed securely welded behind the wall, and under normal circumstances it would have taken professional tools to disassemble that particular section. But fortunately enough, Annie had been sitting right in front of said panel, and if Beverly was familiar enough with her friends as she thought she was then she also knew that Annie's presence there would make the task of removing it so much easier.

"Annie! I know this is sudden of me to ask, but I need you to pry open the panel behind you! Everyone's lives depends on it!" Annie was caught off guard by the request and by all of the madness that was unfolding around her without any explanation, but in spite of this she gave a quick nod of understanding and then effortlessly pried off the professionally attached section of the wall.

"Oops. Did you want for all of that to come off?" Annie asked with a sheepish smile. Beverly gave a thumbs up to her friend, as she then turned her head to look at Skwydd and Cricket. She opened her mouth as if to speak, hesitated for a moment, and then began once more with a noticeably unsure look on her face.

"So umm, Tuck, Cricket? Now I'm not trying to be insensitive or anything, _having read up on you guy's criminal past and all_ …But uh, by any chance would either of you know how to work with, _cough_ , wires?" She stammered at a near whisper by the end, feeling flushed in the face under the impression that she may have accidentally offend any of her friends.

But to her surprise, the trio simply snorted to themselves as Tuck then hopped out of his seat. "Please, I've hot-wired more cars than I know how to count! Which isn't very high, now that I think about it…but still!" Tuck gleefully responded, seemingly comfortable with both his less reputable abilities and his lack of an education after having turned into an EVO. He crouched before the exposed terminal as Annie slid out of the way. "Alright, now what do you need me to do?"

Beverley moved passed her embarrassment and proceeded to act as usual. "Think of it like jump-starting a car, except that in order to kill the sub-system without suffering a complete blackout, I need you to redirect all of the power from that circuit to the Jet's primary battery. Can you manage that?" Tuck thought it over for a moment; evaluated his abilities, tested his confidence, and accepted his responsibility for the consequences that would follow should he fail to do the task correctly.

Tuck shrugged. "…Yeah, I think I can manage that." He replied as he began to tinker with the wiring. Beverly grinned as her plan began to fall into place, and once Tuck announced that he was nearly complete mere seconds later, the frequency instantaneously shut down while an electric buzz passed through the system. The Jet turned dark temporarily, but as the lights and controls were restored, the hatch began opening once more. A sigh of relief came from the chests of all the members inside and outside of the Jet, or at least, all members save for Circe who seemed to have the wind knocked out of her.

The group inside the Jet held on to any support they could grasp while Rex closed his eyes and began to focus on his machines. From the base of the whip, a whirring noise resounded as the whip began to spiral and retract into Rex's arm, pulling himself and the group straight into the hull at an incredible velocity. Without any method of slowing himself down, the whip released from the back and the group crashed into the Jet, the sturdy and jagged-edged machinery serving as a cushion to the blow.

Beverly hastily closed the hatch once more, and with Rex's remaining tendril finally deconstructing itself, the Jet's main passengers began to assist their friends off the ground. Noah extended his hand to Rex, Annie and Claire went to Kenwyn, Cricket crouched before Circe, and Tuck reluctantly helped Bobo up, each and every one of the new arrivals embraced in a comforting manner while also bombarded with questions as to what happened to them and how they were currently feeling.

"Truth be told, I think I might've really gone deaf." Bobo complained to no one in particular with Tuck having already wandered over to Cricket once she called him over. Rex let out yet another sigh of relief to himself knowing that Bobo and the rest of his friends were secure for the time being; or at least that was the case until he finally took notice of Circe as well, who was acting unresponsive to Cricket's and Tuck's attempts at gathering her attention.

Rex broke away from Noah and called out Circe's name in alarm, rushing over to her position on the ground so that he could hold her within his own arms. Tuck and Cricket backed away and exchanged concerned looks at one another as Rex began to gently shake Circe at the spot, sporting a reassuring smile that was betrayed only by his concern-ridden eyes and his faltering voice. "Come on Circe, don't you think you're overplaying it a bit? I know that wasn't the smoothest landing, but I got us out of there, didn't I? Please, you've got to say something, anything…"

Circe remained unresponsive. Whatever positivity that remained on Rex's face was quickly dropped as Cricket's hand was placed on Rex's shoulder. She had apparently been trying to get Rex's attention, but was completely being tuned out until she made physical contact with his body and forced him to look her direction.

"…Rex, it's alright! Circe still has a pulse, it'll be alright!"

Claire walked over and dropped down next to Rex. "Chances are it's a minor diaphragm spasm, which probably happened whenever you grabbed her with your machine." She winced as she saw Rex's brows furrow together, prompting her to reassure Rex even further. "She'll be fine in a minute or two, nothing to be worried about. This isn't your fault, Rex." Still, he looked unconvinced and harbored an apathetic expression on his face, carefully brushing aside a strand of hair that was on Circe's face before tenderly passing her over to Cricket.

He stood up on one knee before trudging along to the back of the Jet, everybody clearing out of the way of the distraught EVO. He stopped right before the exit hatch and stared at it blankly for a few seconds as if eyeing down a long-time enemy of his, but in reality, he was simply looking deep in his own reflection as he began rationalizing the next series of events.

Rex placed his hand on the wall of the Jet, and before anyone could protest against the actions he were about to take, his Nanites began to circulate freely from his body and into the Jet, programmed with the sole instructions to 'open'. Once more everyone else inside the Jet held on to some sort of support, with Tuck and Cricket both securing Circe as the hatch became fully exposed.

Noah's eyes widened in horror as he began pleading in order to appeal to Rex's sense of rationality, or whatever was left of it, at the very least. "Rex, are you out of your mind!? You don't know what the heck is waiting for you down there, and in the state you're in, your machines are just going to fall apart before you can even throw a single punch!" Noah cried out, recalling how Rex was unable to summon his machines because of his emotional turmoil—and to protect them both from Beverly, no less. "By the time we reach you, the fight may already be over and we don't know who the winner will be!"

As Noah finished his last ditch effort of keeping Rex in line, Rex looked back at all of his friends with an entirely different countenance then they had expected. He looked back at them with a face that was suddenly devoid of all anger, concern, fear, and even mischief; and in its place there was the representation of what could only be described as a hero. A hero resolute on completing his task no matter the risk; a hero determined to protect his allies no matter the opposition; a hero who would not allow his emotions to get the better of him. Not any longer.

His eyes shone with a flaring passion, which he had covered up with his signature goggles in one smooth movement. His smile, however, still remained visible and bore just as much confidence whenever he mouthed out the words 'Thrill me', as he then jumped out the Jet with a salute.

* * *

 **AUTHOR'S NOTE, and warning, it's a long one:**

And so marks the end of another chapter! The hesitancy I get halfway through writing one of these things is unremarkable, but thankfully I trudged through it and finally completed this! A week after intended, granted, but that's still progress!

Also, I really hope that there's any semblance of excitement written within these first few chapters. It's incredibly difficult finding a common ground between writing something engaging and establishing narrative for a really badass moment later on; but don't worry, after the next chapter we will be delving into a political revolution, and while I can't say much on that now, the stakes will be incredible!

But before I get into comment responses, I would like to thank all of you who are reading this series, and I promise it will only get better from here! I have big plans for this project, and there isn't going to be a single facet of this world that will go unexplored.

On that note, though, I would like to take the opportunity to ask all of you what your favorite character, scene, episode, or aspect of the series was, whether you're reading this message on chapter 2 or chapter 20. My writing of this fiction all originated from my adoration of one episode and the many possibilities it opened up, so it would be really interesting to see what you guys liked about the series so that I can try incorporating as much as that as I can into the writing as well! After all, this series if by the fans, for us fans!

 **Guest:** Would you believe me if I told you that I already planned for that? Because I didn't. I had no explanation for Bobo still being the way he was without being an EVO. The continuity of my writing is bound to have more holes than Swiss cheese, but now I've thought of a pretty grim explanation to cover this one up, so thanks for bringing it up!

 **YellowAngela:** It's always reassuring to hear words from you, seeing as how you're the reason I got into writing in the first place! Yeah, there wasn't really much reason for me to abandon the previous story and go 'New 52' on it other than me being flat-out weird, but thankfully you've been keeping up on my shenanigans regardless! I promise, I'm sticking with this series for good!

 **P.S:** I made some minor revisions to the first chapter. Nothing that changes the story or is worth rereading over, but some minor alterations that make the words flow a little bitter.


	3. A Beautiful New Day Part III

**SEVERAL MONTHS PRIOR**

It hadn't been so much as a week since the conclusion of the Nanite Event, yet it seemed that not even the resolution of history's greatest calamity would deter the reemergence of the deranged monsters and terroristic criminals that were once so plentiful in the world; or at least, the world before it was plagued by their literal counterparts. It was only a matter of time before such events would once again become commonplace, but it would seem that there were those who were more than eager to take advantage of a world laden with vulnerable Nanites.

And of course this pursuit attracted the attention of many undesirable people such as the madman who was operating the robot that was raiding a former Providence shelter for EVOs. But just as the wicked would never rest, neither would Providence as they continued to deal with situations such as those; but by no means was it the organization's responsibility to be involved with such affairs since they were no longer being financially supported to do so.

So as a result of nearly every military and law enforcement group stretching themselves thin trying to provide assistance everywhere in-between their local communities to the entirety of their states, every person who remained at Providence were those who felt obligated to continue operations and swore to provide their efforts in dealing with the larger threats. From there the organization would divide itself into several divisions which were split even further into squadrons and parties, with Rex's fledgling group being the only ones available to accept a high-profile transmission which had already led to dozens of other professionally trained grunts being incapacitated.

By the time they had arrived at the scene most of the civilians had already been evacuated and those who remained were being led out of the region of conflict with utmost urgency. The contraption responsible for chaos was actively rampaging inside of the center-sized shelter, scouring each and every enclave for something that was unquestioningly bound to be of marginal importance; and if the man behind it all was following the trend of many of those before him, it was probably for some remnant of an EVO sample with the intention of performing illegal experimentation.

Once the scientist behind the disturbance caught sight of the backup, chiefly Rex, entering through the archway he had created, he foolishly tried charging at them only to have that plan shut down by a single blow from one of Rex's machines. After slamming into the floorboard and realizing the futility that was further engaging in the battle, he took control of the robot and made for a hasty escape out of the shelter, bursting through another wall and creating a hole that was just as large as the first. He had the advantage of a few dozen meters in his escape before the agents were right behind his trail just seconds later, with Noah, Circe, and Bobo opting for a ride with Rex whereas the remainder of the group lagged right behind inside of a Providence Tank.

The cumbersome size of the robot made it excellent for dealing with basic Providence grunts and breaking into public spaces with relative ease but overall terrible for navigation and maneuverability. It couldn't outpace a Providence standard tank, it couldn't seamlessly turn corners as smoothly as Rex could, and it couldn't brake itself whenever the Scientist foolishly continued to look back at his pursuers and not notice his path straight into the closed-off barrier of a tunnel.

He crashed violently into the wall and considered himself fortunate to have had the foresight of installing airbags into his machine, but not even that could cushion the blow that was being captured and detained by Providence. The punishment they had in store for his number of crimes would surely be ruthless; but even that paled in comparison to the actual torture he knew he'd endure from his employers once _they_ got their hands on him. He didn't really consider himself to be a main of faith as much as he did principle and logic, but if there truly were fates worse than death then he was certain that they could cause it to happen.

"I wasn't sure if we could catch up with him at first, but it looks like our plan was _concrete_!" Tuck joked while hopping out the back of the tank to inspect the wreckage.

"Seriously, Tuck? That's the best you could come up with?" Sighed Skwydd as he exited the Tank and joined the rest of the group already surrounding the scientist.

"Keep making your jokes. You will all get what's coming to you soon enough." Growled the scientist while his hand began to creep all over the surface of his navigation system.

"That would be _our_ line." Claire added while pulling out a tablet. "Let's see here…Listed on your record we have multiple counts of arson, theft, burglary, robbery— _and yes there is a difference_." She directed at Tuck who put down previously raised hand. "In addition to several other counts of trespassing, fraud, forgery, money laundering, embezzlement of funds, and disturbing the peace." Each finger swipe of the device adding another criminal charge to the list. "Sounds to me like you'll be locked away for quite some time!" She stated with faux smile.

"You children certainly enjoy acting all high and mighty, don't you?" He growled in response before taking on a mocking tone. " _Oh, look Mommy, we took down the big bad threat and saved the day_ ~! _Oh Daddy, does it matter if we had an EVO on our side_? _Feh_. How pathetic you all are in the face of real danger, especially when only one of you still has your freakish powers to back up your absurd moxie." he finished ranting with a discrete push of a button. At first it seemed as if the group was put off by the comment, but it wasn't long before they began exchanging snickers and breaking out into absolute hysterics.

" _Ohh no_ ~! Someone hold me, _please_!"

"I can't, I'm too busy quivering in my boots!"

"Did anyone else feel a sudden chill go down their spine?"

" _Brr_! I'm practically frozen in terror!"

"H-hey," _snicker_ , "knock that off you guys!" Even Kenwyn, who was normally the most focused and reserved member of the group couldn't muster to suppress a giggle; but Bobo was exempt from the amusement and glared at the scientist harboring some apparent feeling of disgust while Circe kept her face passive and began to stride towards the scientist.

Before her advance could be questioned by anyone in the group, they all received a sudden call to rendezvous at their drop off point and to leave the scientist in his place for someone else to pick up. Rex went ahead of the others in order to personally inspect the Tank for any performance issues as he intended to do prior to engaging in the chase while the rest waited for Claire to finish sending out the report. After one final swipe, everyone was prepared to take off until they heard Circe slam her palm against what could only be described as the hood of the robot. With the exception of Rex who was already inside the tank, the group turned around in their place to see what the sudden commotion was about.

"Oh, struck a chord did I? Now which part of that statement did you have an issue with? The bit with the parents, or the one surrounding your current power struggle?"

"It would be the part when you began to open your mouth, actually." Circe asserted. "All this talk about _control_ and _family_ as if someone like you could even comprehend the sorts of things we've been through over the past six years. And then there's you acting like you're some big threat when you're not even the one pulling the strings." She hissed.

"Well, you're certainly not _wrong_." He chuckled while positioning himself upright, placing his arms behind his back despite it appearing to be so painful that it caused him to wince doing so. "But who's to I'm the only puppet in this little show?" Everyone was confused by his cryptic comment and it was only in dead silence that they were all able to discern the sound of a faint beeping noise. Everyone was brought closer to robot in their search for the source of the sound, but Circe was the first to notice that the sound was coming from it directly and that the beeping interval was steadily increasing. Her eyes widened in response, and when her eyes met the scientist she saw that he adopted a smug expression of victory as he gave a little wave with his hand.

She swore internally before whipping her head around and yelling out to her friends to "TAKE COVER! THAT MECH IS A BOMB!" Everyone instinctively did as they were told, but she herself was unable to make any distance with the Scientist suddenly lurching forward and grappling on to her arm. She desperately tried shaking him off to no success until she finally elbowed him in the face and sent him back with a bloodied nose, but by the time she had escaped the beeping was already beginning to sound like a solid hum—signaling the imminent blast.

Within seconds everybody else had already retreated to the confines of the tank, Noah being the first one to burst in and warn Rex of the imminent explosion. After doing a quick scan of everyone who had just arrived and noticing that Circe was the only one not present, his body and mind alike shifted into high gear in order to intercept her before it was too late. He has shoved everyone else out of the way, but by the time his head popped out of the exit he saw her only meters away and began constructing his «Block Party» in order to shield her from the blast.

But unfortunately, despite her near proximity she was still nowhere near close enough to being within the radius of Rex's protective shield, and by then the robot had already self-destructed and sent fragments flying everywhere. The majority of the components ricocheted off of the environment and pierced into the ground and side of the Providence Tank, the scalding heat so intense that it even penetrated through Rex's force field whereas the more tangible objects bounced off. The cancerous smoke that lingered afterward enveloped the eyes and lungs of any living being present, which may have only been himself as far as Rex knew.

He reeled in his gauntlets and brought out his «Boogie Pack» in order to completely clear the smog. Once the turbines' job were done the machine returned inside of Rex's body—and at that very moment he felt a similar sort of contraction take place with his own heart upon witnessing Circe collapsed on the ground in an ever increasing pool of blood. She laid on the ground, barely capable of lifting up her head and one of her arms without violently shaking and trembling as if it had meant her death.

The rest of the group immediately began to climb out only to freeze in place after witnessing the state Circe was in. Rex cried out her name with a heart-rending shout, the soles of his shoes burying into the ground as each step of his sprint brought him closer to her. He collapsed beside her and immediately tried to apply pressure to the wound while also desperately trying to get her to say something, anything to set his mind at ease and reassure him that she would be fine; but he received no such response with her loss of consciousness. He was simply there with her blood on his hands, hopeless.

Powerless…

* * *

Rex reopened his eyes after he finished recalling that all-too familiar experience from several months ago, choosing to brush it aside and remind himself that free falling towards the ground at God-knows what speed was probably not the best time to be reminiscing on the past. However, it did serve as an invaluable reminder for what his true purpose was, as he still considered himself to be nothing more than a living weapon at the end of the day.

Despite the fact that his unique Nanites provided him with a great deal of resiliency and strength, it presented him no methods of providing other people any sort of recovery past curing them of their active Nanites; and so that fact became a harsh lesson that he wouldn't soon forget, especially after what had just occurred at the Jet. But it would be one that he would have to reflect upon after dealing with the one who was currently targeting him and his friends.

And as if the villain was queuing in on his thoughts, a familiar noise began humming within his own head which was then followed by a brief flash of light down below. Deducing that it was the enemy firing off some sort of weapon, he summoned his «Block Party» and raised his shields to block the beam. But just as it had during the previous attack the shield shattered and disintegrated after a single instance, prompting Rex to question how his own machinery was so vulnerable to whatever it was that was attacking.

He could only assume that there was some sort of Nanite disruption technology involved, but the issue with accepting that theory came with the implication that there was a being out there who had access to sophisticated weaponry designed to combat him and him alone. All the while, any personal enemies that he knew were capable of that were either missing, cured, or imprisoned…so whoever was responsible for this assault was either a clear exception to one those categories or potentially a new opponent all together.

After blocking another shot with his «Block Party» he considered taking the offensive route instead, and with the assistance of his goggles he was able to get a clearer visual on his target and saw that it was some sort of Scorpion-like mech with the tail serving as the laser artillery. After pinpointing the contraption's weak-point at the joint where the weapon was attached, Rex constructed the «Sky Slyder» in exchange for the «Block Party» while calculating a trajectory for a projectile to fire.

The Scorpion continued to fire several more beams at him within the span of seconds with Rex opting to predict and dodge out of each lasers' way rather than to continue facing them head-on. After the firing began to slow down to a halt, Rex used the thermal vision on his goggles and confirmed that he had exhausted the weapon and caused it to overheat. Taking that as his opportunity to strike, he stabilized his «Sky Slyder» from its downward spiral, overclocked it to its highest speed, and then dismounted from the build with a seamless backflip. The board was launched at the mech with an incredible velocity with the precision of a thread traveling through a needle; making a clean slice off of the tail and thereby disabling it. But the mech itself, however, only stumbled slightly in response and still remained entirely operational.

Clearly underestimating the construction of the mechanical frame before him, Rex whipped out his «Smack Hands» only a building's height away from impact—and after reeling back his right fist as far back as his body could muster without strain, he pummeled the mech with so much power that a crater sinking several feet into the ground was formed; the force of the collision spreading dust, pebbles, and fragments of windows across several blocks.

When the cloud finally began to clear, Rex brought back in his «Smack Hands» and pulled up his goggles in order to clearly inspect the damage he had dealt. But to his surprise, his attack didn't budge the shell all and it appeared that the frame itself was in fact much sturdier than the attached gun. "So I'm guessing this mech is just like the rest we've been fighting?" He could only assume that it was because of its particular structure that the majority of the shock was absorbed, but before Rex inspected the mech any further he rested his hand on its exterior and commanded his Nanites to run throughout the contraption in order to turn it off. Blue lines extended from the placement of his hand, but then began to fizzle out and retract.

" _Great_. Does the whole entire system have anti-Nanite measurements?" He complained to himself while trying to run his Nanites through the system again, straining his focus at an attempt to disable the machine only to fail once more. However, during that second inspection his Nanites reacted in an unusual manner and instead managed to pick up on a particular signature of Nanites that only he could detect; a signature that could only belong to living organisms. Within the mech he felt the presence of several people inside trying to operate the machine, all of which seemed familiar to him for reasons he could not yet discern…

But before Rex could deduce who those signals belonged to, each one of the Scorpion's legs began to stake themselves into the ground—and then without any sort of warning the base of the mech began rotating with a tremendous amount of torque and effortlessly threw Rex into the brick wall of a building. As Rex began to crawl out of the rubble of the former wall he began to hear a voice projecting from the mech, and though at first he believed that it may have been a simple case of disorientation resulting from slamming headfirst into a wall, he became certain that someone from within was communicating to him through the means of a speaker system—or rather, they were laughing at him using such.

"Now correct me if I'm wrong men, but was that just a person we launched at the wall? Do you gents think that Providence is using people as artillery now? _Heh_ , I'd applaud the ingenuity if it were the least bit effective…" Just as the mysterious leader began wrapping up their sentence, Rex picked himself back up and dug himself out of the pile in order to face the mech, recognizing exactly whose voice that was.

"But hold on a moment, that's no ordinary person! _Oh-ho-ho-ho_ my, NOW things are getting interesting!" He announced as the Scorpion hopped out of the crater and faced directly toward Rex. The front portion of the machine slid open, and in a dramatic display of steam accompanied by an ominous red glow, Gatlocke appeared and hopped on to the front lid of the Scorpion. "Well if it isn't Rex Salazar!" He proclaimed while pointing at Rex in an extravagant pose. "Oh, how I've missed this kid!" He giddily exclaimed in an aside to his men. "So tell me Rex," he turned back to the agent, "how have you been doing recently? Wait, don't answer that, I know exactly what you've been up to these past couple of months! Say, have you been working out? I mean—it may not look like it but you've _really_ done a number to the internals of my mech here. That power of yours has always been so devastating!"

Even though his suspicions had been confirmed, Rex's eyes were still laden with shock and confusion, his mouth was agape at the sight of Gatlocke before him. "Gatlocke. Of all people, Gatlocke?" He spat out with the Anarchist condescendingly applauding Rex's recognition of his person.

"That's my name, don't you worry about wearing it out. And here I was obsessing over whether or not you still recognized me after all this time, but it seems I had nothing to worry about!"

"I would've preferred it if I never had to see your face again. Shouldn't you be in prison, or some sort of mental hospital?" Rex queried while realigning his posture and staring down on his opponent with a face that did not look pleased in the slightest.

Gatlocke chuckled with a closed grin, slicking back his hair with a free hand. "My warden would be inclined to say yes, but you see I have friends in all sorts of places. _Care to guess who they are_?"

" _Yeah_ , I'm not interested in playing any of your games. But if you'd like to tell me who you're working with right now I might just consider against making you my new personal piñata." Rex threatened while cracking his knuckles.

"There's that attitude I was missing!" Gatlocke exclaimed while pumping his fists into the air. Within the mech, Rex could've sworn that he heard the voice of some person crying out for help, their shrill shriek even catching Gatlocke off guard. Rex looked back at Gatlocke with worried eyes only to receive an innocent shrug in response. Hopping back in to the mech, the front closed back up and the Scorpion activated once more, its legs successfully moving around in response. "If it's a fight you want then it's a fight you'll get. But tell me, do you _really_ think you can land a scratch on this machine without injuring the hostage inside? But more importantly, do you think you can shut us down before your people begin to fire upon us?"

"What game are you playing at?" Rex concernedly thought to himself as he caught a glimpse of a Providence fleet just over the horizon, with The Keep itself on the forefront of the charge. Turning his head back at the Scorpion, he saw that the mech was charging straight at him while all he did was stand there—thinking of ways to take down his opponent before Providence could reach them, and how he was going to do that without hurting the hostage that was inside. Believing that he needed more time to formulate a plan, Rex snapped on his goggles and braced himself for a chase for the first time since the incident with Circe happened. Leaping into the air and creating his «Rex Ride», he immediately spun his build around and bolted off at an attempt to lead Gatlocke away from the fleet.

This was not a long-term solution to Rex's dilemma, however, as the Scorpion was already beginning to catch up to Rex who was trying his best to navigate onto streets with less traffic. But in his effort to avoid any collisions with the passerby he lost so much of his momentum that the rear of his bike was impaled by one of the mech's limbs, causing him to immediately plummet to the ground and grind against the asphalt. Hastily he created a new component to replace the one that was wrecked, but as he recovered himself and continued pushing the limits of his bike he reached out for his ear-comm only to remember that his communications line was killed. He was effectively without any method of communicating to Providence the presence of living people inside the machine, making it even more imperative that he bring it to a stop—and fast.

Gritting his teeth and revving the engine even further, beads of sweat formed on his head as he gradually began to distance himself from the Scorpion with his increasing advantage in speed. After separating himself a safe distance away from his threat, he turned around his head in order to scan the Scorpion as it continued to hop across the walls of the many scaling buildings—and it was while the mech was temporarily suspended in the air that Rex spotted what appeared to be an engine located at the back of the vehicle, right underneath where the weapon was formerly located.

"Rex!" Gatlocke boomed with a tinge of irritation to his voice. "While this chase sure is fun and all, I need you to get back here so that we can settle this once and for all!"

"Consider it settled" Rex grunted with a devious grin as he turned his head forward and swerved his vehicle around to a complete stop. For a moment he was idle and hovered in place, but after three winding, consecutive revs accompanied by incredible roars, the «Rex Ride» blasted off with an intense blue stream of fire trailing from the back.

He charged forward at a speed that easily clocked over 300 mph, and though the flames quickly subsided from the vehicle the momentum he took off with lingered on. At the speed he was traveling with he had an extremely narrow window of opportunity to make his move, so he took a moment collect his nerves and exhaled out a steady breath of air with his eyes closed just as Agent Six had instructed him to do so long ago when he first constructed «Rex Ride»; back to the time when he first learned how to control his speed.

When he opened his eyes again he saw that he was less than a dozen meters away from the mech, but during that instance it felt as if time itself had slowed down to a crawl. Releasing his right hand from the handlebars, he reeled back his entire arm back as he began to summon his «BFS», ready to strike down his prey. In one continuous motion Rex flipped over the «Rex Ride» whilst simultaneously deconstructing the build—sending him flying into the air and directly above the Scorpion. With his blade trailing behind him in the air, Rex flipped over as he brought it down on the engine with full force, slicing through the component while shattering his blade into two clean halves. Summoning the «Rex Ride» once more in order to prevent burrowing through the ground, he began grinding against the street and drifted until the build fell apart. As he felt time return to its normal motion, he watched as the mech stumbled and eventually collapsed to the ground in an unexciting manner.

With his breath heavy from the amount of physical, emotional, and mental exertion he put himself through, Rex stumbled as he began to stand up and slowly stumble towards the mech. He stood before the vessel with a great deal of anticipation, but after the mech continued to remain inactive without any sign of a commotion he finally felt at ease just as the Providence fleet had arrived.

The Jets began to descend on both Rex and the mech's position and surrounded them in a circular pattern. But before Rex could locate the Jet belonging to his group, the Scorpion opened up one last time with an excessive amount of steam pouring from out the front. Several fast-acting providence grunts took their positions and had their weapons aimed at the Scorpion, but after Rex cautiously held up his hand and signaled for them to hold their fire, several masked Pirates began to emerge with their arms raised in surrender.

"Stay in your positions," Rex commanded the other agents when they tried to close the distance between them and what they assumed to be all of the members operating the vehicle.  
"Gatlocke said that you guys had a hostage with you but neither of them are here right now. Where are they?" Rex demanded to know from the Pirates. The guns were once again pointed at the Anarchists who merely shuffled closer together while remaining silent. None of them seemed too keen on selling out their leader, but before any of them could feel threatened enough to do so Gatlocke himself climbed out of the Scorpion with the hostage in a headlock.

And to make matters worse, the hostage was none other than Peter Meechum's daughter, Sarah—a young girl who appeared terrified out of her wits most likely because of the extended arm-blade that was resting right on top of her neck. It wasn't the first time that she had been kidnapped by some ill-intentioned party, but it wasn't as if she was prepared to relive the horrifying scenario for the second time, either. Though the caveat in this particular situation would probably be Gatlocke's reluctance to actually do anything serious; because if his expression was any indicator of his feelings then it would seem that he wasn't too happy with the way things were progressing neither, though it was nigh impossible to determine what thoughts were going on inside his head.

But the same could be said for all of his men as well, who collectively stopped quivering in their spots as they pulled out a wide variety of concealed, very illegal-looking weaponry and pointed it at Providence. The Providence agents didn't dare to fire upon the pirates as they began to fan out and circle Gatlocke at the risk of their projectiles hitting the center—and just like that the two groups found themselves within a standoff with Rex, Gatlocke, and Sarah thrown right in the middle.

"Gatlocke, you don't want to do this. Put the blade away so that we can sort things out civilly." Rex calmly instructed, hardly able to conceal the fear and anger that was creeping into his throat.

"I'm a businessman, remember? I can't go making deals without some form of insurance!" He explained while giving a light tap on Sarah's neck with the blade. "Although I have to agree that I would much rather be pointing this blade at you rather than some innocent little girl who's unable to fight back. So what do you say to a good old fashioned fight, Rex? Just you and me, for old time's sake."

Rex wasn't sure how to respond to Gatlocke's demands. "That isn't how this works, man." He slowly shook his head in defiance. "Release the girl first. You know I'm going to mess you up either way."

He regretted adding the last part after seeing Gatlocke draw the blade ever closer to Sarah's neck, angrily reminding himself that he had to be careful with his words. "Why are you doing this, Gatlocke? I know that you guys don't have any sort of boundaries, but resorting to this?" He pleaded, gesturing to all of the Pirates.

Gatlocke briefly glanced around at his men before looking back at Rex with a disappointed glare. "There's no need to bring them into this, Rex. They know exactly what they're fighting for, as do I." He confidently stated.

"And what would that be?" Rex calmly asked with clenched, trembling fists.

Gatlocke took notice of Rex's apprehension, and though the Pirate leader appeared to be dejected throughout the entire duration of their standoff, for some unknown reason he still managed to smile at Rex as he pulled aside his arm-blade from Sarah's neck and aimed it at Rex. "Care to find out?" He challenged with his free hand still restraining Sarah.

Several of the Providence agents exchanged glances before settling their eyes on Rex, who slowly approached Gatlocke without posing as any sort of threat. Rex stopped when he was only a few paces away from Gatlocke, staring deep into eyes that were focusing on himself just the same. The pair stood in silence with the tension between them so heavy that Sarah felt like the gravity of the situation would cause her to collapse to the ground. Sensing that Providence wouldn't dare to make any sudden moves, Gatlocke released his hold on Sarah while not breaking eye contact with Rex.

She fled towards the Providence Agents who embraced her with open arms, and after Rex glanced to see that she was in safe hands he brought his attention back to Gatlocke. "I'm a man of my word, if nothing else." Gatlocke nearly whispered with sincere modesty. " _Oh who am I kidding_ , there isn't much more to my personality outside of that, now is there?" He then sighed. "But whether you like it or not we're both in that same boat." Rex was visibly becoming perplexed by his words. "Still don't get it, do you? Actions speak louder than words, Rex. And seeing how you've made it this far, why don't you do me this one favor and prove to me that you're still undefeatable?"

Gatlocke snapped his fingers and the perimeter in which his men surrounded him expanded to provide them a comfortable amount of space to fight in. "You've contributed a great deal to the world over the past couple of months, which is a lot more than the rest of us can say, you know? It's a lot more than the majority at Providence can say, even. But the burden that comes with a great amount of power is not one many would choose to accept, and that is something that you and I understand better than anyone else!" Gatlocke began to point his blade upwards, making the whole scene seem like some sort of sentimental confrontation between them both. "So, Rex, fight me and prove to yourself that you are more than just a machine, and that I— no, that WE are more than just mere anarchists!" He exclaimed with passionate eyes.

"You're crazy." Rex toted while unsheathing his «BFS» and crossing it against Gatlocke's blade. All Gatlocke could do is return a crazy grin in response as he began to take several paces to the right, the two opponents beginning to circle around each other with their swords still in contact. It wouldn't have been difficult for either of them to go against their word and pull off some sort of outrageous stunt, but the both of them had every intention to face off against the other in order to achieve their goal.

Drawing apart their weapons with frenzied expressions on their faces, they both began to swing at each other in commencement of their grand duel.

* * *

 **AUTHOR'S NOTE, and this time it's not as long:**

Over 5.5k words written in one session, more than all of the words written in first two chapters combined. Never before had I realized how tiring writing could be...

My writing stamina leaves much to be desired and as of this writing I'm still not satisfied with the pacing of these chapters. But these are issues that I'm certain are overcome with experience, and so, I'll continue trudging forward so that we can get to the better parts of the story!

There is so much more about this chapter that I would like to mention here as well but I'm not sure that the exploration of my personal writing journey really deserves its own segment, so from this point on I'll be leaving those sort of notes on my Tumblr.

Here's the link for any of you interested: post/164654149340/gree-chapter-iii-extras

But as a quick aside before I get into comments, I would like to once again thank all of you for your interest in this project! Right now I'm nothing more than an aspiring director-producer, but the attention I'm getting for this project is the most encouraging thing in the world!

 **YellowAngela:** The people who write and read fanfiction, edit the wiki, talk about this series on sites, and continue to make fan art of this show are the coolest people of all (and I'm not just saying that because I do all of those things already ;) The figurative ashes of this community may erupt into a Phoenix yet, just so long as we continue to stick around and remind others why this series is so special. And speaking of "erupt", yeah, I had some fun trying to fit in as many synonyms of explosion as I could. Repeating the same thing does get dull after a while, so it was a fun challenge trying to alter the text the way I did.

 **Guest 1:** I hope this update wasn't too late for your liking! I go into the reasons for my delay in my Tumblr blog but the TLDR is that I'm prepping to move and beginning a new school year. But even with these obstacles in the way, I hope updates will be more frequent and that I can come up with some sort of consistent schedule, but I won't make any promises due to the fact that I'm terrible with promises.

 **Guest 2** : Perhaps it's my rose tinted glasses, but I've loved just about every Gen Rex fan fiction I've found on here and on AO3. Granted, there were never really stories I wanted to see and there were little more than two writers who worked on more "narrative focused continuations" of the series (gotta give a shout out to YellowAngela and Luminesyra). But those other stories were still enjoyable on their own merit, and if it weren't for them I probably would have never decided to make my own.

As for character development, believe me when I say we will be seeing characters grow, for better and for worse! As for who goes down which route, feel free to take bets; but I certainly agree that the developments this show had is really made it stand out to me. And as for Rex and Six's bond, I definitely want to refine their mentorship situation they have into more of a familial one, but I can't say how long it will take or what obstacles may be in their way…

The road ahead is a rocky one. But for as dark as I plan for this series will get I promise there'll still be plenty of lighter moments too (and that's a promise I can keep)!

 **Mudkip:** Ahh, the designs! The visual details of the series was so incredibly astounding, especially the really minor ones you notice only after re-watching the show for the third time! Truth be told, I wish I could make this series into a full-fledged comic but I wouldn't know how accessible/known it would be, or if I could manage to keep up with it. Still, I'm content with creating my own designs to include in this story as they appear, which should start happening in the next chapter.

As for the second question, I'm going to have to hold off on the answer for a future issue. Sorry, _spoilers_ (I wonder which character said something like that?) But trust me, when it comes time for me to explain my inspiration for the project I will spare no details! Although I will say at its core, this is a story inspired by elements of family, romance, change, weakness, and above all else, sacrifice.


	4. HIATUS UPDATE

So, I've been on something of an unofficial hiatus recently. Life has been keeping me very busy, and I haven't had a lot of time to work on this project. However, I would never completely stop working on it without announcing so first, and from this point on I'll be sure to give warning for such periods of absence.

But in the mean time, enjoy this bit of S4 concept art as my offering. I was going to include it after the completion of the first arc, but seeing as how I finally completed this piece I might as well show it. This chapter will be deleted once the proper one is finished, and the link to the art will be re-included as well. But speaking of finishing my chapter, here's two questions for anyone who catches this segment; how would you conclude the Gatlocke fight from the previous chapter, and what are some concepts or ideas that you'd like for me to explore in this series, be it big or small? I'm a bit lost without your thoughts.

Thanks for sticking around, Draftsmanfive.

(fanfiction's link policies are absurd. Just search my name and check out my most recent post on DeviantArt)


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